Conventional battery powered lighters mainly utilize double A or triple A batteries. Two of these batteries are housed, connected in series, to electrify a resistance wire heating element such as a nichrome wire with a voltage of 3V. The lighters are utilized by placing the heating element, which serves as an ignition source, in contact with cigarettes and the like.
There have also been proposed card type battery powered lighters in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication Nos. 63 (1988)-142571 and 3 (1991)-128251. The card type battery powered lighters employ thin flat batteries or button type batteries, and have Ignition windows which are openable and closable.
Battery powered lighters are not in widespread use. This is because in comparison with gas lighters, in which fuel gas is ignited to generate a high temperature flame, the amount of energy at the resistance wire heating element is low, resulting in difficult ignition.
Battery powered lighters which utilize the double A or triple A batteries as described above enable easy battery replacement. However, the thickness of the lighter main body becomes 15 mm or greater, to house the batteries therein. Accordingly, there is a drawback in portability, as they become difficult to carry in a breast pocket, for example. In addition, if the voltage is as low as 3V, the amount of generated heat is small, resulting in a drawback that sufficient igniting function is difficult to obtain.
If a large flat surface is formed on the lighter main body, the entirety of the lighter becomes large. On the other hand, if the lighter is miniaturized, a flat surface thereof becomes small, thereby decreasing the area of a display portion for printing a name, or placing an advertisement. Therefore, miniaturization of the lighter renders the lighter unsuitable as an advertising medium.
Rechargeable batteries such as nickel hydride batteries and lithium ion batteries may be utilized. However, these batteries are expensive, so it would be difficult to apply them to a disposable advertising medium.
On the other hand, the lighters disclosed in the aforementioned Utility Model Publications comprise a slide switch for opening and closing the ignition window, which also serves as a power switch. Thereby, an electrical connection is established in a linked operation with the opening of the ignition window. This structure may lead to inadvertent switching during carriage of the lighter, which exhausts the battery and reduces the number of times that the lighter can be utilized.